Dan Rooke’s Blog

I was pleased to read a post over on the official Internet Explorer (IE) Blog detailing how the major browser devlopers are beginning to work together to develop some common standards.

The post covers security issues including phishing along with Microsoft’s proposed solution. I believe that this kind of co-operation will be received well by all and should be built upon to bring about the introduction of further standards.

As any web developer will tell you, developing feature rich websites which are cross-browser compatible is not the easiest of tasks. This is due to different methods which are used by each browser resulting in browser quirks. Personally, I would like to see a common rendering engine used by each browser with unique features and user interface built on top of that. This is a long way off, but I believe it would reduce repetition of work, improve user experiences and help develop standards while still allowing each browser to have it’s own identity.

This is a step in the right direction in my book, hopefully the developers will keep working together in future.

I was pointed in the direction of Jeb’s Jobs, a short movie about the suffering endured by technical support staff. I would highly recommend watching it - very amusing. Keep your eyes peeled for episode two as well.

It’s been a fairly quiet news couple of weeks. Here’s a few noteworthies.

Becca’s graduation
This was a big occassion for all, except Becca. It was great to finally see all the hard work which she has put in over the last three years being recognised officially.

A rather shaky photo of Rebecca Elizabeth Parnaby BMus (Hons) shaking Patrick Stewart’s hand.

The University’s chancellor, Patrick Stewart, was in attendance awarding the graduates along with some cheap jokes about X-Men III and his one man stand up show in London!

Work
This week I finished my first project working for the University’s School of Education and Professional Development. A simple PHP web application to list and manage notices for students of the summer school held by the department. I used some new features to PHP5 such as the try catch structure as well as experimenting with PEAR DB_DataObject package.

Honeymoon
Becca has now booked the honeymoon! We’re off to Patterdale in the lake district. Next weekend we shall be visitng the Registry Office as well as our Vicar.

Christmas
It’s that time of year again! Well that’s what the retailers would have us believe anyway. Preperations are well under way here, we have even bought our very first tree together. Don’t worry though, it’s not up…yet!

Well maybe it hasn’t been such a quiet couple of weeks. It’s certainly kept me busy enough to not be able to post on this here blog! Hopefully the next post will be sooner, see you next time!

It’s been a busy week, having finished off working for Blackcat and starting work for the University of Huddersfield. I have also been busy looking into setting up a business with friends Andy and Chris.

An aspect of the business will be produced high traffic websites, the first of which is now live at huddersfieldstudent.co.uk hud.yourstudentvoice.co.uk. We are currently in the process of developing a business plan with a view to pitching our business idea to potential investors. I shall keep you posted as our plans for Fused Networks progress.

I finished working for Black Cat Fireworks on Saturday, after a gruelling 8 hour shift almost continually unloading heavy boxes of fireworks. Needless to say it was a tiring day, extremely tiring!

As a bonus everyone got some free fireworks. I also bought the biggest selection box available (buy one get one free). Myself and Andy combined our fireworks to amass a huge number of gun powder based goodies. A group of us had fun letting off about a third of the stock pile. We’ll remember for next time to buy bigger and not to go for selection boxes with smaller fireworks in!

It was a good three weeks of work, very enjoyable. I might even be back there next year, we shall see!